Jo Parfitt

After having my first idea for a book accepted by the first publisher I approached when I was 22, I decided a career as a full time writer was for me. French Tarts (Octopus) was published in 1985 and I then went on to write 13 word processing handbooks for giants such as Macmillan and McGraw-Hill. Then along came WYSIWYG and Word and I changed direction. First a second cookbook (Dates, Zodiac Publishing) and then I published Forced to Fly and Career in Your Suitcase through my own imprint, Summertime Publishing. I've been abroad for 25 years now. I am one of those people who has inadvertently been presented with the label of Trailing Spouse and so, after years in Dubai (hot), Oman (beautiful), Norway (rainy), a few years back in England (weird after all that time) I was then in Holland (not half bad) for nine years, followed by the last three in Malaysia (hot). I have come to specialise in expat issues and have written the 4th edition of Career in Your Suitcase (co-authored by Colleen Reichrath-Smith) as well as Expat Entrepreneurs and Find Your Passion. I have also published my memoir, A Moving Landscape, and three training programs - How to Write Your Life Stories, Definite Articles and Release the Book within as well as a novel, Sunshine Soup. In 2014 I published an anthology of writings by kids who grew up global, called The Worlds Within and now publish the annual round up of events at the Families in Global Transition conference. I started publishing other authors in 2008 and Summertime Publishing and Springtime Books have helped well over 100 authors to get into print. We offer a complete mentoring, editing, design and print service to our clients. I work with an international team of freelancers – Jack Scott in the UK and Jane Dean in Houston in addition to designers in South Africa, the UK and the Netherlands.

In my life outside work and books, I am married to Ian (my oil and gas man) who plays guitar in a rock band when he is not being oily, and we have two young adults, Sam and Josh, of whom we are inordinately proud.

I grew up in the 'most perfect stone town in England', Stamford, Lincs. The place they recorded Middlemarch. I went to an all girls' school and was still blushing by the time I went to study French at Hull university (and no, I did not go there through clearing, I wanted to go). My father, Peter Gosling, was still writing books at 83 and we have each written 31 books. His book, How to Be a Global Grandparent is available on Amazon. My mother claims she 'can't do anything' but frequently comes first in the village horticultural society painting competition and has been promoted to doing the alter flowers in church. It seems we are a creative lot, for my brother, Patrick Gosling, is a pretty darn good photographer http://www.patrickgosling.com